Sunday, March 2, 2014

2013 Oscars Live Blog

Yes, once again I'm going to be live blogging the Oscars, which means another year of dicking around trying to find a working stream while the red carpet show goes on. I would have gone to watch it with somebody that actually has a working TV, but I have to stay home because I'm going to have to get up at 5 tomorrow to see my five patients...and I'm on call tomorrow. *sigh* I liked my original schedule where I would have had tomorrow off.

Oh well. If you need a refresher of the nominees in the most underrated category, you can check here. Of course the one I'm really rooting for the most is for "Let It Go" winning Best Original Song. I would have liked to see Kaze Tachinu win for Best Animated Feature, but clearly that's not going to happen. Oh well. At least Spirited Away won in 2002.

18:00 - Well, it's 6pm central time, the time that ABC advertised that the ceremony would begin, so I guess it's about time for me to start and look for a good livestream. Naturally the one I used last year no longer works so I'm going to have to search around again. Good thing it's only the red carpet pre-show. I could care less about all that.

18:09 - 10 minutes in, and still no luck. Apparently ABC is going to do a livestream, but you have to live in one of the major markets. DFW is not one of them. How the eighth largest metropolitan area not qualify I have no idea.

18:15 - Well, I found one that works. It seems to have a lot of ads, but it's better than nothing. Meanwhile, they're interviewing Sally Hawkins, who was not only nominated but also in the Oscar nominated Room on the Broom, where she plays a bird, as green as can be.

18:25 - Matthew McConaughey. Once he wins the Oscar I hope he brings it back to his old hometown in Longview on a victory tour. Probably won't happen.

18:30 - Jennifer Lawrence. She's totally going to win. Anyways, this red carpet stuff is probably going to last for another hour or so, so I ought to go get something to eat for now...except I'm not very hungry.

18:33 - I guess the red carpet stuff has these pre-edited sequences. Earlier they talked about the role of fashion in Blue Jasmine, and now they're interviewing Matthew McConaughey, Whoopi Goldberg, and Christopher Wlaken about their first Oscar nomination.

18:36 - Argh. I hate how the stream freezes at times. Good thing I have it open it multiple screens. Of course by the end it'll probably be a half an hour behind by the time the show is done.

18:55 - Yey! Emma Watson is at the Oscars this year! Makes up for not being there last year.

19:10 - Well, I just got something to eat, and for a while there the stream wasn't working. But now it's working again, and I get to continue with the rest of the night watching all the films and songs I'm rooting for lose. Sigh. 17 minutes to go.

19:25 - And the stream died again. Argh. Right when it was about to start too. Good thing I only had to refresh once. And we're about to start.

19:29 - Stupid commercial breaks.

19:30 - I can't remember the last time Ellen hosted. I can probably look it up, but I'm probably too lazy.

19:32 - So she just said it was seven years ago, so I guess it's the year before I started doing the live blog. I can't remember how it was last time. She's doing a lot of shout-outs, which is pretty classy. A lot of underhanded jokes though. I guess that's the theme of this monologue.

19:37 - She's really making the most of Jennifer Lawrence's celebrity. But she's probably going to win tonight, so why not?

19:39 - Uh oh, she went the "12 Years a Slave wins Best Picture or you're all racist joke route." And then it's time for Best Supporting Actor. Pretty abrupt transition.

19:41 - Bradley Cooper is getting a lot of applause. Looks like American Hustle is probably going to pull off the upset.

19:41 - Oh. Michael Fassbender is getting a lot of applause too. Man, this is going to be a close race.

19:42 - Oh heck. Everybody got a lot of applause. And the Oscar goes to Jared Leto. No surprise there.

19:43 - It sure has been a while since Requiem for a Dream.

19:44 - Interesting. Jared Leto was born in Bossier City, Louisiana, which is not too far from here. But apparently he went to high school in Oakton. :|

19:45 - This speech has been long, but it's only been two minutes, which is half the length of Greer Garson's speech when she won for Mrs. Miniver 71 years ago.

19:47 - Here's Jim Carrey, and he's here lampooning the fact he never been nominated. And now he's talking about animation, but not to present an award, but to show a montage of animated heroes. And people wonder why the show goes on too long.

19:50 - Oh, here's Kerry Washington presenting Pharrell Williams to perform "Happy" from Despicable Me 2. Looks like they're going to do the old thing where they do the performances at different moments in the ceremony.

19:51 - "Happy" is a happy song I guess, but I prefer "Let It Go." "Happy" is just too repetitive. Naturally, this is probably going to win, because everybody likes to be happy, which is what I won't be if this wins. :/

19:58 - I don't remember the nominees getting so much applause before. But now The Great Gatsby won an Oscar. No real surprise there.

20:00 - Now they're going to do Best Makeup and Haristyling. A lot of applause for Bad Grandpa, but Dallas Buyers Club gets the win. Now they're in the lead with two wins. Interesting if this film ends up with more wins than 12 Years a Slave, especially if that goes on to win Best Picture.

20:02 - Harrison Ford. Now there's somebody they usually get to present Best Picture, but now he's here to present three Best Picture nominees: American Hustle (inevitable winner), Dallas Buyers Club, and The Wolf of Wall Street.

20:10 - Argh, the stream pauses so often. But now here's Ellen doing a joke about consolation prizes for Best Supporting Actor losers.

20:11 - Kim Novak! Great to hear the Vertigo theme again! She's here with Matthew McConaughey to present animation awards. I don't get what they're saying, but they're going to present Best Animated Short first.

20:12 - Mr. Hublot. I knew there would be an upset, but I went for Feral instead. I should have known considering that it was the one that made me have to go to Dallas to watch the showing a month ago. And then somebody went and posted it the next day.

20:15 - So much applause for Frozen. Naturally it wins the Oscar. I hope they don't go to another film for Best Original Song just because of this win.

20:17 - Sally Field is here to present I have no idea what. I guess it's a montage about heroes. Meh, but hooray for Jackie Robinson.

20:20 - Hooray! It's Emma Watson here to present an Oscar alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who did the dub voice for Jiro Horikoshi in Kaze Tachinu. They're here to present the awards that Gravity will sweep, starting with Best Visual Effects.

20:21 - Gravity wins. Anyways, seeing those nominees just shows how much of a role animation has in many of modern day visual effects. It was possibly more apparent in Life of Pi, which pretty much bankrupted the animation company that did the visual effects: the scandal that you've never heard of.

20:23 - Zac Efron. I bet he's here to present another performance for Best Original Song.

20:24 - Yep, "The Moon Song." This is a dark horse, but still has a chance to win, especially since it seems to resemble "Falling Slowly" which won back in 2007. It's the song that led me to say "I don't really like this song. It's probably going to win." Well this category has three songs I don't like and one I absolutely love. Any one of those three songs could easily win. One that I actually thought was quite good was Alone Yet Not Alone, but of course that got removed in the Oscar Scandal of the Year.

20:30 - Kate Hudson and Jason Sudeikis is here to present a category. I could tell because of the envelope they're holding. And apparently it's Best Live Action Short.

20:31 - And the Oscar goes to...Helium. Sad that obviously Chinese Baldwin Li didn't win for The Voorman Problem, but I don't really care since I didn't watch any of the nominees.

20:33 - Best Documentary Short too. This is locks of all locks. The Lady in Number 6 is obviously going to take it. Holocaust film + inspirational + recent death of subject. That said, I am kind of interested in seeing it.

20:35 - Ellen Degeneres is walking the halls. That can never be a good thing.

20:39 - Nice they're letting one of the backup singers from the film perform, though. But now it's Kevin Spacey to present the Governor's Awards. I still don't like how they have this as a separate thing while keep numerous montages around. Angela Lansbury and Piero Tosi need their places in the sun. Not so sure about Steve Martin or Angelina Jolie though. XP

20:48 - Ewan McGregor and Viola Davis. They called her a two-time Oscar nominee, but they should have been able to say Oscar winner, but unfortunately they went with two-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep two years ago. But I digress. Here's Best Foreign Language Film, which goes to The Great Beauty, to the surprise of absolutely nobody. No country has won more often than Italy.

20:51 - Tyler Perry is here to present some more Best Picture nominees. For somebody whose work gets so much hate, Tyler Perry is pretty charismatic, or at least good at reading from a teletype. Anyways, Nebraska, Her, and Gravity.

20:52 - Nebraska is kind of a weird film. It looks like a drama in the way it's shot, what with the black and white cinematography, but it's pretty funny, and stars Buzz McCallister.

20:53 - Gravity was a good film, but it's too sci-fi to win the Oscar.

20:54 - And Ellen just made a wardrobe change, from black to white. She'll never come close to matching what Whoopi Goldberg did back in the 1998 Oscars in terms of changing clothes. Anyways, her joke about having to introduce Brad Pitt even though he needs no introduction otherwise he won't know when to come out.

20:55 - And U2 is here to sing "Ordinary Love." Another likely winner, especially since it can be seen as a way to honor Nelson Mandela. I still don't really like the song and would be sad if it wins.

20:58 - U2 gets a standing ovation. Well, they're probably going to win. Then again Pharrell got a standing ovation too. He may win. Maybe there will be a tie.

21:01 - I really should learn to let it go.

21:02 - Ellen is up walking the halls again. "Don't be scared of me," she says. Yeah, right.

21:04 - Big thing about taking a picture and putting it on Twitter, but I don't see it on her Twitter.

21:04 - Michael B. Jordan and Kristen Bell for the Scientific and Technical Awards. Some of these can be pretty fascinating.

21:05 - Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron here to present the sound awards.They're talking about the use of sounds, but they should have been like Chris Rock in 1998 and showed something without sound and with sound. It was funny with his added sound effects.

21:06 - I wonder if that snafu before announcing the nominees of Best Sound Mixing was planned. It would have been funny if it wasn't. Oh well. Gravity wins here. Now it's a tie between Dallas Buyers Club and Gravity.

21:08 - Two of these guys won on their first nomination. Meanwhile Kevin O'Connell is 0 for 20. Sometimes you just have to work on the right films.

21:09 - Sound Editing. People have difficulty telling this apart from Sound Mixing, but this category made more sense when it was called Best Sound Effects Editing. Oh well. Gravity wins again to take the lead.

21:10 - Glenn Freemantle. His name contains the word "mantle" which just reminds me of Mickey Mantle. He was the one guy nominated for Slumdog Millonaire that lost to a different movie. Well now he has his Oscar.

21:27 - Shoutout for Harold Ramis. Guess he died too early for the In Memoriam segment.

21:27 - Gravity wins again. That's four now, but the first for Emmanuel Lubezki. He probably should have won back in 2006 for Children of Men, but meh.

21:29 - Anna Kendrick and Gabourey Sidibe. Gabourey looks chubbier than she did in Precious. But now Best Editing. This could be a race.

21:30 - And one that goes to Gravity. That's five wins now, but first for Alfonso Cuaron.

21:32 - Whoopi Goldberg. She's got no envelope so it's going to be something else. Wonder why they're leaving Best Art Direction for later. Anyways, she's here talking about The Wizard of Oz. Not sure where this is leading.

21:34 - Pink to perform a tribute of sorts for The Wizard of Oz with Oscar winning "Over the Rainbow". Meanwhile, still no performance of "Let It Go" until later.

21:38 - And a commercial break. Naturally.

21:42 - Interesting Glenda the Good Witch costume by Ellen. At least she'll wear a dress once tonight. Meanwhile here's Jennifer Garner and Benedict Cumberbatch for Best Art Direction, or as it's known now Best Production Design. At last The Great Gatsby can win its second Oscar. Now it's tied for second most wins by a film. It's nowhere close to the record for most wins by a film not nominated Best Picture.

21:46 - Chris Evans for another montage of heroes.

21:47 - Fun fact: Baz Luhrman films have won four times in either the Best Costume Design or Best Art Direction categories. If there's anything his films do well it's in those categories.

21:48 - Emma Watson is so attractive. But now comes another annoying commercial. Break. This will most likely go later than last year's awards which ended at 23:06. Sigh. This year's ceremony has a lot more bullcrap. Either that or last year's was super short.

21:53 - "Multiple Oscar nominee Glenn Close." How sad. When can she finally win? I dunno, but here's the "In Memorial" sequence and the inevitable commercial break that comes afterward.

21:58 - No commercial break now. First Bette Midler has to sing a song I never heard before.

21:59 - I guess it's "Wind Beneath My Wings." I fail.

22:03 - So does the Academy for another commercial break. Ugh. Then again all that's left is Original Score, Original Song (!), Screenplay awards, lead acting awards, Best Director, and Best Picture. Bet the music awards come in this next segment.

22:04 - Twitter did crash. I've been trying to retweet that darned pic for an hour. And now here's Holdie Gawn for three more Best Picture nominees: Philomena, Captain Phillips and 12 Years a Slave.

22:08 - John Travolta, to present Idina Menzel for "Let It Go!"

22:09 - Gawsh, what a wonderful song! <3 Except they skipped the second verse. Oh well. Still a brilliant film, especially when performed by Idina Menzel.

22:11 - Jamie Foxx and Jessica Biel...for the moment of truth. But first...Best Original Score.

22:13 - Jamie Foxx's a capella of the Oscar winning Chariots of Fire theme for the win.

22:14 - I did love the score for Saving Mr. Banks, but the Oscar went to Gravity instead. That's six wins. If it wins Best Director and Best Picture it will join Gone With the Wind, From Here to Eternity, On the Waterfront, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, Gandhi, Amadeus, and Slumdog Millionaire in the 8-win club.

22:16 - The moment of truth...and the Oscar goes to...

22:17 - FUCK YEAH! "LET IT GO!" <3 <3 <3 EGOT for Robert Lopez, and a new favorite Best Original Song winner!

22:17 - Great speech. They've obviously practiced it.

22:18 - Commercial break. Might as well talk about why I'm so excited "Let It Go" won. When I first saw Frozen back in November (mostly for Get a Horse!), the other songs that came before were okay, but got kind of tiresome. When "Let It Go" started I was thinking "Oh no, not another song," but then came the powerful second and third verse and I was completely blown away, and was thinking to myself, "This is probably going to win the Oscar." I kept listening to it again and again and really fell more in love with it. There was a lot of pressure from other songs, but my prediction from November finally came true! It helps that the song kind of became viral.

22:23 - Robert DeNiro and Penelope Cruz for the screenplay Oscars. Finally. Best Adapted Screenplay first, which goes to 12 Years a Slave.

22:26 - Best Original Screenplay now. And the Oscar goes to Her. Surprising loss for David O. Russell. It's possible American Hustle may get shut out Gangs of New York style.

22:27 - Just realized Spike Jonze was in Three Kings directed by none other than David O. Russell. Bet it's a TAKE THAT moment for him.

22:28 - Commercial break, then the lead acting awards.

22:31 - Angelina Jolie and Sidney Poitier for Best Director. It's nice to have old movie stars like Poitier and Kim Novak earlier doing Oscar presentations.

22:34 - Interesting thing: the five Best Picture nominees I happened to watch were the ones that were nominated for Best Director.

22:34 - And the Oscar goes to Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity. What a surprise. That's seven for the night. The question is can it get to eight? Or even nine???

22:38 - Great segway to commercial break. Meanwhile let me talk about the fact that while I love "Let It Go," the role it plays is pretty different than what it seems to represent. People know it for a liberating song. Hey, here's Elsa releasing herself from the shackles that have bound her for years. But in reality, if you consider the context of the film it's more like a film about her running away from things. "Let it go, let everybody else worry about things." There was obviously a lot more room for Elsa to grow, and that's why she's the most compelling character in the film.

22:48 - Jennifer Lawrence. No commercial break in between. I like that. It would have been nice if Jennifer Lawrence did a Joe Pesci in Goodfellas when she said "Is this funny?"

22:50 - Such a short scene for Chiwetel Ejiofor.

22:50 - Matthew McConaughey. No surprise there. At least somebody from Longview wins an Oscar. Too bad he probably won't take it back to his old hometown for a victory tour. That would be nice, though. He probably won't let anybody touch it.

22:53 - Three wins for Dallas Buyers Club, second most of the night. Meanwhile, Matthew McConaughey's speech just exudes East Texas.

22:55 - Yey! No commercial break before Best Picture. And Will Smith is presenting it this year. Hmm. Could it be a clue?

22:56 - Ooh, I like the transitions they do between each Best Picture nominee while Will Smith is reviewing them.

22:56 - And the Oscar goes to...12 Years a Slave! 1972 Redux!

22:57 - Everybody is probably going to complain about how 12 Years a Slave won just because the voters were compelled to do so because otherwise racism, but that will just be missing the fact that 12 Years a Slave is truly an amazing film. It does have a riveting storyline about survival in a difficult circumstance, but what really struck me about the film was the brilliant filmmaking that featured not only great beauty in the heart of despair but also captured the